The SBA and adumbrate

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

adumbrate

a-DUM-brayt, AD-uhm-brayt

1. To foreshadow.

2. To give a rough outline or to disclose partially.

3. To overshadow or obscure.

From Latin umbra (shade, shadow), which also gave us the words umbrella, umbrage, and somber.

 _______________________________________________

TIP OF THE WEEK 

The Small Business Administration has adumbrated the changes for SBA loans for some time now.

Those changes are in the SOP 50-10-5(F) which became effective January 1, 2014.

It is now easier to obtain a SBA loan and more borrowers can qualify.

_____________________________________

Indices:

PRIME RATE= 3.25%
SBA LIBOR Base Rate January 2014 = 3.17%
SBA Fixed Base Rate January 2014 = 5.59%

________________________________________

SBA 504 Loan Debenture Rate for December  

The debenture rate is only 3.36% but note rate is 3.44% and the effective yield is 5.458%

 ________________________________________________

AHEAD OF THE YIELD CURVE 

The Federal Reserve does a good job of adumbrating.

At its last meeting on monetary policy, the Federal Open Market Committee strengthened its commitment to keep the fed funds rate low, stating that a rise in the target rate would not come until the unemployment rate was “well past” the current threshold of 6.5 percent.   

Keep your eyes and ears open for this week’s Department of Labor report on jobs.  It will be for the month of December and will give us a look at how 2013 ended up.

Here is a summary of net payroll employment and this week’s interesting little table of data:

2004     2,019,000

2005     2,484,000

2006     2,071,000

2007    1,115,000

2008     -3,617,000

2009     -5,052,000

2010     1,022,000

2011      2,103,000

2012     2,193,000

2013     2,074,000

What does this mean?

I don’t know.

Through November 2013, the economy has added an average of 173 thousand jobs per month.  According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, its jobs calculator estimates that it will take another year before the unemployment rate hits 6.5 percent assuming the average monthly change in payroll is 172,777.  

The FOMC’s median end-of-year fed funds rate projection—1.0 percent by 2015 and 2.0 percent by 2016 in September—has moved to 0.75 percent and 1.75 percent, respectively.

It would appear that we don’t have to worry about interest rates going up this year.

__________________________________________
OFF BASE

For those of you still in the Christmas spirit, today is your last day.  

The Twelfth Day of Christmas is today, January 6^th.  

It’s not the twelve days before Christmas, but the twelve days after Christmas.   It ends on January 6^th on what is known as the Epiphany (with a big E) which celebrates when the three wise men came with gifts for the baby Jesus.  This day was once as celebrated as Christmas.

Based on the array of gifts in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” PNC Bank released its 2013 PNC Christmas Price Index.  

The price tag for the PNC CPI is $27,393.17 in 2013, $1,192 more than last year and the largest increase since 2010 when the index jumped 9.2 percent.  Nine Ladies Dancing vaulted with a 20 percent jump this year, while Lords-a-Leaping jumped 10 percent, combining for a $1,736 increase from 2012.   

All that dancing and leaping helped prompt a 7.7 percent boost in the 2013 PNC Christmas Price Index®.   This year, the PNC CPI’s increase outpaced the government’s Consumer Price Index, which stands at 1.2 percent for the past 12 months. 

Now the Christmas lights really have to come down.  Don’t despair however; our next holiday is almost here.  

According to the Federal Reserve, here are our holidays for 2014:

Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. January 20
Washington's Birthday February 17
Memorial Day May 26
Independence Day July 4
Labor Day September 1
Columbus Day October 13
Veterans Day November 11
Thanksgiving Day November 27
Christmas Day December 25